Palmer just JFK-ing around in Press Club speech

CLIVE Palmer has been accused of lifting parts of a speech from former US President John F Kennedy.

The Fairfax MP addressed the National Press Club yesterday just hours after being sworn in as a member of parliament.

With his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, he implored newspaper owners to pay their journalists higher wages.

He relayed the anecdote of Karl Marx, who was driven to revolutionary socialism after failing to eek out a living as a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.

The story was the same one JFK used in a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in 1961.

Both speeches bare striking similarities and touch on the same themes.

Mr Palmer was not available for comment yesterday but he is known as a devout JFK admirer.

Last year he dedicated the fairway of the ninth hole at his Coolum golf resort to the former US President. He even invited Mr Kennedy's nephew, Stephen Smith, to the dedication ceremony at Palmer Coolum Resort.